Electronic mail with attached image data is commonly exchanged between users of mobile communications terminals. Usually, a mobile communications terminal used for receiving electronic mail is capable of receiving from another mobile communications terminal an electronic mail containing an image file associated with a predetermined tag, interpreting the tag associated with the image file, and thereby displaying on its display unit a screen showing the nicely laid out text and image contained in the electronic mail.
Such a mobile communications terminal is often provided further with a function for automatically correcting the size of an image represented in the received image data so as to fit the image size to the display width of its display unit, so as to allow for differences in sizes of display units. A user of a mobile communications terminal having such a function is able to view details of an electronic mail without being aware of a difference in display size, even in a case where an electronic mail is received with an image data created using a display having a different resolution.
When an electronic mail has data of more than one image attached, a mobile communications terminal receiving the data computes a contraction scale independently for each image and reduces the scale of each image according to the independently computed contraction scale, so that each image may fit in accordance with the breadth of the display area of the mobile communications terminal. However, when a scale contraction process is applied according to such a conventional method, contraction scales may be different for each image, as they are computed independently depending on the size of each image, and therefore, the proportion between different images that existed at a source terminal is compromised. In an example shown in FIG. 10, data of three images are generated in a mobile communications terminal A having a display area of 240 pixels in width, and an electronic mail, together with the data of the three images, is transmitted to a mobile communications terminal B provided with a display area of only 144 pixels in width. Of the three images shown in FIG. 10, the image showing a large boat, and the image showing “Congratulations!” have to be scaled down, since they do not fit into the display area of 144 pixels, whereas the image showing a small boat is displayed in an unchanged scale because it fits into the display area of 144 pixels in width. As a consequence, the original picture, showing a large boat on the upper line and a small boat below it, is most unlikely to be understood by a receiver of the electronic mail.
Based on the foregoing, it is the general object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for proportionally adjusting the size of images transmitted between mobile communications terminals that improves upon or overcomes the problems associated with the prior art.